Course: Sociological reasoning

Faculty: Andre Beteille

This short course on ‘Sociological Reasoning’ has been specifically designed for Young India Fellowship(YIF). It differs substantially in structure and content from the introductory courses offered in Sociology departments of Indian universities. While, generally, students of Sociology are introduced to the subject through papers on Sociological Theories and on debates about Indian Society, this paper emphasises on the unique and distinctive nature of sociological reasoning. It is an attempt to introduce students at YIF- who come from various different disciplinary backgrounds- to the enterprise of Sociology. While we will, no doubt, touch on the ideas of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Srinivasand others, the main thrust of the paper will be on explaining the difference between a sociologist’s viewpoint and the views of other disciplines. Sociology, here, will be presented as an empirical and comparative discipline in contrast to the normative and speculative ways of thinking about the world.

Introducing Sociology

Religion as a subject for Sociology

Politics as a subject for Sociology

Economics as subject for Sociology

Family, Kinship and Marriage

Caste

Social Class

Equality and Inequality

Institutions and Networks

Institutions of Democracy

It is through a discussion of these themes that will try to develop a deeper understanding of the enterprise of Sociology.

A short written examination at the end of the term will evaluate students’ comprehension of the reading material and the lectures.

Course: Foundations of Leadership

Faculty: Dwight Jaggard

The goal of Foundations of Leadership is to increase your capacity to effectively lead throughout your career and to teach others to lead as well. This involves understanding and learning – through reflecting on your own experience – about yourself and about working effectively with others. It also involves teambuilding activities and experiential learning modules that will vividly demonstrate the concepts that we study together in order to deeply embed these concepts. These abilities are essential in meeting critical personal, interpersonal, and organizational challenges.

Course: Historical Perspectives: Reason and the Making of Modern India

Faculty: Rudranshu Mukherjee

The title of the course explains its purpose and its theme. What needs to be explicated is the way it approaches this very broad subject. The lectures will look at the life and career of certain individuals who used reason to put forward their arguments and also believed in the power of reason to transform society. It will place the individuals in a specific historical context – this will also serve to introduce to the class the basic contours of the making of modern India – and then analyse their careers in relation to the context. This will serve to bring in to focus their impact as well as their contradictions and slippages. A word of warning: It should not be assumed that these were the only individuals to have pursued reason in modern India. In fact, the course should provoke students to look at other stalwarts who were committed to the advocacy of reason.

Course: Statistics and its Application in the Modern World

Faculty: Santosh Venkatesh

H. G. Wells once opined that statistical thinking would one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write. He was not far off. We are inundated by statistical data in practically every domain. Exploratory surveys, empirical investigations, and position papers engender vast amounts of chance-driven data; news sources and technical reports present them and analysis, blogs, and reviews use the data to justify their positions. Statistical data influence everything from public policy to scientific investigation, from environmental science to statistical physics, from manufacturing reliability to supply chains, and from social science to politics.This course deals with how to statistically analyze data and make decisions based on the data. Probability forms the mathematical framework on which statistics rests. Building on basic probabilistic concepts, we will cover the following major topical themes instatistics with applications drawn from a welter of domains.

Sampling (with a discussion on the pernicious effects of bias and the rise of George Gallup, and a test case on quality control)

Estimation (presenting the three-cornered dance of constraints enlivened by a physicist’s visit to Monte Carlo and the burning question of whether polls are believable, testing beer and its unexpected consequences, and a test case on the viability of product promotions)

Hypothesis testing (with a discussion on the state of environmental science and the climate and the modeling of financial markets, and a test case on principled choice of business strategy)

The chi squared test for distributions (with a discussion on the efficacy of financial analysts, a startling accusation of fraud in psychology, the pervasiveness of incentives in modern life and their unexpected consequences, and the remarkable case of educator fraud in high-stakes educational testing)

Tests of means (with a discussion on the drug approval process with test cases on high profile retractions of drugs from the market)

Analysis of variance (with applications on the housing market, more on drugapprovals, and a test case on comparisons of company performance by market andsize)

Course: Shakespeare and the World

Faculty: Jonathan Gil Harris & Madhavi Menon

This course considers how Shakespeare imagines the worldbeyond England and Europe in two plays – The Tempest and Othello.

It also considers howthe world has re-imagined The Tempest and Othello in print and on screen – from the MartiniquanAiméCésaire’s play A Tempest (1968) and the American B-grade science fiction flick Forbidden Planet (1956) to the Sudanese novelist TayebSalih’sSeason of Migration to the North (1966), the American basketball movie adaptation of Othello, O (2001), and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Bollywood film Omkara(2006).

Course Objectives:

to become attentive to the various ways in which Shakespeare artfully uses language in order to produce effects of dramatic “character” and to create a sense of the “world”;

to recognize how Shakespeare’s plays are not just relics of a bygone age, but powerful meditations on questions of globalization, cross-cultural encounter, and identity that anticipate the condition of our present world;

to recognize how the challenge of reading Shakespeare is a creative one that always re-imagines his texts afresh

Course: Essentials of Business

Faculty: Rajeev C Lochan

Business skills are an important ingredient for success, regardless of your chosen professional pursuit! This course is an overview "bridge" course into the essentials of business management. The course will parsimoniously focus on the most critical concepts of accounting, finance, operations, marketing and strategy and will require the application of these concepts through the five weeks (ten sessions of two hours each) of instruction for the course. There will also be an overview to effective problem solving and a thought-starter discussion on ethics as part of the curriculum.

As with most efforts in the real world, this course will require working in teams and in the process learning from each other. Specifically, each team will be the senior management team of a (disguised) real-world company and will be required to solve a series of business problems faced by the company. "Lecturing" will be restricted to a necessary minimum and the expectation is for an interactive "debate and discussion" in class.

The specific objectives of the course are four-fold. The course is designed to help you to:

Develop a deeper understanding of the most critical concepts of the foundational elements of business management (i.e. accounting, finance, operations, marketing and strategy)

Apply these concepts to various facets of your firm as a leader of the firm

Learn to collaborate in teams and practice the give-get of leveraging each others' strengths

Course: Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity in Contemporary Perspective

Faculty: Vivek Bhandari

Through a critical evaluation of the life and works of Gandhi, and the larger context that he inhabited, this course will examine this thinker’s view of the institutional apparatus and epistemologies that we have come to associate with the “modern condition.” By using Gandhi’s critique of modernity as the central thematic, the course will analyze his views on non-violence, the political strategy of civil disobedience, and how these are embedded in his perspectives on truth, trusteeship, the preservation of the environment, and satyagraha. Secondary texts, films, and the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, et al, will be analyzed in conjunction with Gandhi’s writings.

Course: BRICS

The course on BRICS aims at identifying the distinctive features of this group of nations and to analyse their trajectories - economic development, political and social transformations - in a comparative fashion. Taught by Sciences Po faculty with broad international experience in BRICS countries and India experts on the matter, the course aims at shedding light of the positioning of each member in the international arena and will identify and analyse areas where the BRICS cooperate and areas where they disagree and sometimes oppose each other.

Course: Group Dynamics

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course on Group Processes is intensely experiential. It builds on the strong liberal arts backgrounds in human biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, economics, history, philosophy and political science. Its purpose is to provide participants with an in depth understanding about group processes while they are in operation. It is usually easy to see what went right or wrong in a group, an organization or a community when one looks back in hindsight, or to understand what is going on in groups observed from a distance. To tune into these dynamics when we are embroiled in them ourselves and to take constructive actions when it could have a meaningful impact is a completely different issue. This is an art form which requires cognitive and emotional processing that is extremely demanding and draws on multiple logics simultaneously. The course offers new ways of understanding the relationship between “out of awareness” and “unrecognized” processes and the overt behavior of groups and their members. Participants will be introduced to, and invited to practice, the science and the crafts of “right-brain,” analogic, paradoxical ways of reasoning about group functioning, while linking them with the classic reasoning systems of “left-brain,” digital, casual logic.

Course: Leadership for the New Economy

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course addresses a number of basic issues central to leadership: wealth creation, innovation, cross-sector collaboration, wealth-distribution, birthing possibilities, fostering new futures. The course builds upon the earlier YIF leadership course and draws upon the thinking found in psychology, anthropology, sociology, management, politics, economics and philosophy. We start from the premise that all leadership acts require a form of thinking that transcends the conventional, while simultaneously standing on the shoulders of the reasoning processes used by organizational members and managers embroiled in every-day decisions about both the mundane and the profound. In short, leadership thinking is done in concert with, but is not captive to the conventional. We will focus on developing new reasoning capabilities about a wide variety of topics. Our deliberations will be both highly theoretical and highly practical. Students will find they are stretched to think in abstract and concrete ways simultaneously. No theory divorced from reality will be seen as relevant; no questions of application (“what we could or should do in any situation”) unattached to meaningful and robust theory will be entertained. All participants will be invited to push the envelope of your reasoning powers.

Course: Economics

Faculty: A.K. Shiv Kumar

The main objectives of this course are to (1) develop an appreciation of the basic concepts of microeconomics, and (2) explore their usefulness in helping us think about public policy interventions. The course will provide a useful perspective on how economists think about society’s problems. Emphasis will be laid on key principles and paradigms with applications to public policy as a way of introducing some of the ‘big ideas’ of microeconomics.

Course: Sociology of the Environment: Nature, Culture & Power

Faculty: Amita Baviskar

From the genome to global climate change, 'nature' is the centre of competing claims. Be it debates over BtBrinjal or mining in the Niyamgiri hills, environmental issues invoke a complex medley of scientific authority, human rights claims, as well as notions of national and planetary welfare. This course is based on the premise that environmental issues are inseparable from the question of power. How do contestations around knowledge and power shape the environment? How do cultural beliefs and social relations affect ideas and practices about nature? The course addresses these questions by exploring how environmental issues are socially constructed and contested. We ground our review of theory and method in ethnographic and empirical studies that extend from big game reserves in Tanzania to shopping malls in southern California, with a focus on contemporary Indian debates.

Course: Art Appreciation

Faculty: Anunaya Chaubey

The Art Appreciation Course will seek to make the students understand and enjoy the way a work of art communicates and works, not only as an aesthetic object but also as a cultural product .

Although one is able to subliminally respond to a work, more often than not, when asked to comment or talk about that work of art, that person gets defensive and apologetic. In expectation of proper comprehension and subsequent informed articulation of an aesthetic experience by the student, the Course will attempt to equip him with knowledge of such aspects of art as: its definition : expression and experience; its evolution down the ages: from cave art to contemporary times; elements of art ; movements and styles exhibiting the dynamic play of elements and the zeitgeist.The teaching and interactions in the classroom will be complemented by art workshops to enable the student to express the learning in practical terms ; visits to art galleries and exercises in thinking and writing critically on selected works of art therein.

Course: Political Science/ International Relations

Faculty: Devesh Kapur/ Eswaran Sridharan

This course provides an overview of international relations and foreign policy. It summarizes the history of international relations, concepts and theories that are widely used to view the world, the history and structure of international security, international organizations and the international political economy. On the basis of this extensive background on the international system, the past, present and possible futures of Indian foreign policy will be examined.

Course: Governing the Metropolis

Faculty: Sciences Po

This course is intended to offer a comparative approach of a series of issues – integration and segregation, Politics of public services delivery, habitat and land access, globalization of metropolises – on the basis of empirical case studies. Taught by Indian and French specialists of South Asia and Urban Studies, the course will situate itself at the crossroad of history, sociology, geography, economy, political science and international relations to shed light on the complexity of the governance of large cities in India.

Course: Sociological reasoning

Faculty: Andre Beteille

This short course on ‘Sociological Reasoning’ has been specifically designed for Young India Fellowship(YIF). It differs substantially in structure and content from the introductory courses offered in Sociology departments of Indian universities. While, generally, students of Sociology are introduced to the subject through papers on Sociological Theories and on debates about Indian Society, this paper emphasises on the unique and distinctive nature of sociological reasoning. It is an attempt to introduce students at YIF- who come from various different disciplinary backgrounds- to the enterprise of Sociology. While we will, no doubt, touch on the ideas of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Srinivasand others, the main thrust of the paper will be on explaining the difference between a sociologist’s viewpoint and the views of other disciplines. Sociology, here, will be presented as an empirical and comparative discipline in contrast to the normative and speculative ways of thinking about the world.

Introducing Sociology

Religion as a subject for Sociology

Politics as a subject for Sociology

Economics as subject for Sociology

Family, Kinship and Marriage

Caste

Social Class

Equality and Inequality

Institutions and Networks

Institutions of Democracy

It is through a discussion of these themes that will try to develop a deeper understanding of the enterprise of Sociology.

A short written examination at the end of the term will evaluate students’ comprehension of the reading material and the lectures.

Course: Foundations of Leadership

Faculty: Dwight Jaggard

The goal of Foundations of Leadership is to increase your capacity to effectively lead throughout your career and to teach others to lead as well. This involves understanding and learning – through reflecting on your own experience – about yourself and about working effectively with others. It also involves teambuilding activities and experiential learning modules that will vividly demonstrate the concepts that we study together in order to deeply embed these concepts. These abilities are essential in meeting critical personal, interpersonal, and organizational challenges.

Course: Shakespeare and the World

Faculty: Jonathan Gil Harris and Madhavi Menon

This course considers how Shakespeare imagines the worldbeyond England and Europe in two plays – The Tempest and Othello.

It also considers howthe world has re-imagined The Tempest and Othello in print and on screen – from the MartiniquanAiméCésaire’s play A Tempest (1968) and the American B-grade science fiction flick Forbidden Planet (1956) to the Sudanese novelist TayebSalih’sSeason of Migration to the North (1966), the American basketball movie adaptation of Othello, O (2001), and Vishal Bhardwaj’s Bollywood film Omkara(2006).

Course Objectives:

to become attentive to the various ways in which Shakespeare artfully uses language in order to produce effects of dramatic “character” and to create a sense of the “world”;

to recognize how Shakespeare’s plays are not just relics of a bygone age, but powerful meditations on questions of globalization, cross-cultural encounter, and identity that anticipate the condition of our present world;

to recognize how the challenge of reading Shakespeare is a creative one that always re-imagines his texts afresh

Statistics and its Application in the Modern World

Faculty: Santosh Venkatesh

H. G. Wells once opined that statistical thinking would one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write. He was not far off. We are inundated by statistical data in practically every domain. Exploratory surveys, empirical investigations, and position papers engender vast amounts of chance-driven data; news sources and technical reports present them and analysis, blogs, and reviews use the data to justify their positions. Statistical data influence everything from public policy to scientific investigation, from environmental science to statistical physics, from manufacturing reliability to supply chains, and from social science to politics.This course deals with how to statistically analyze data and make decisions based on the data. Probability forms the mathematical framework on which statistics rests. Building on basic probabilistic concepts, we will cover the following major topical themes instatistics with applications drawn from a welter of domains.

Sampling (with a discussion on the pernicious effects of bias and the rise of George Gallup, and a test case on quality control)

Estimation (presenting the three-cornered dance of constraints enlivened by a physicist’s visit to Monte Carlo and the burning question of whether polls are believable, testing beer and its unexpected consequences, and a test case on the viability of product promotions)

Hypothesis testing (with a discussion on the state of environmental science and the climate and the modeling of financial markets, and a test case on principled choice of business strategy)

The chi squared test for distributions (with a discussion on the efficacy of financial analysts, a startling accusation of fraud in psychology, the pervasiveness of incentives in modern life and their unexpected consequences, and the remarkable case of educator fraud in high-stakes educational testing)

Tests of means (with a discussion on the drug approval process with test cases on high profile retractions of drugs from the market)

Analysis of variance (with applications on the housing market, more on drugapprovals, and a test case on comparisons of company performance by market andsize)

Course: Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity in Contemporary Perspective

Faculty: Vivek Bhandari

Through a critical evaluation of the life and works of Gandhi, and the larger context that he inhabited, this course will examine this thinker’s view of the institutional apparatus and epistemologies that we have come to associate with the “modern condition.” By using Gandhi’s critique of modernity as the central thematic, the course will analyze his views on non-violence, the political strategy of civil disobedience, and how these are embedded in his perspectives on truth, trusteeship, the preservation of the environment, and satyagraha. Secondary texts, films, and the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, et al, will be analyzed in conjunction with Gandhi’s writings.

Course: Historical Perspectives: Reason and the Making of Modern India

Faculty: Rudranshu Mukherjee

The title of the course explains its purpose and its theme. What needs to be explicated is the way it approaches this very broad subject. The lectures will look at the life and career of certain individuals who used reason to put forward their arguments and also believed in the power of reason to transform society. It will place the individuals in a specific historical context – this will also serve to introduce to the class the basic contours of the making of modern India – and then analyse their careers in relation to the context. This will serve to bring in to focus their impact as well as their contradictions and slippages. A word of warning: It should not be assumed that these were the only individuals to have pursued reason in modern India. In fact, the course should provoke students to look at other stalwarts who were committed to the advocacy of reason.

August 27
Lecture 1: Introductory lecture on modern Indian history
Lecture 2: Thecoming of reason and Ram Mohun Roy

Course: Economics

Faculty: Shiv Kumar

The main objectives of this course are to (1) develop an appreciation of the basic concepts of microeconomics, and (2) explore their usefulness in helping us think about public policy interventions. The course will provide a useful perspective on how economists think about society’s problems. Emphasis will be laid on key principles and paradigms with applications to public policy as a way of introducing some of the ‘big ideas’ of microeconomics.

Course: Introduction to Philosophy

Faculty: Yunus Tuncel

In this introductorycourse, we will read philosophical texts of various philosophers from Plato to Heidegger. The course will give an overall presentation of Western philosophyand expose students to thinkers, ideas, schools of thought from differentepochs of Western civilization. Within the context of this broader picture, wewill focus on the following major Western philosophers: Plato, Aristotle,Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Hume, Kant, Mill, and Nietzsche.As we reading from excerpts from their works, we explore several philosophicaltopics such as knowledge and certainty, being and reality, mind and body, Godand religion, and morality and the good life. What are some of the crucial philosophical problems for these thinkers?How do they present these problems? What is philosophy? What is thinking? Whatis the relevance of philosophy in our lives and in contemporary society? Theseare some questions we will explore in this course, as students are expected todevelop their critical, analytical skills.

Course: A Hands-on Introduction to Visual Storytelling: Change makers

Faculty: Sanjeev Chatterjee

A Hands-on Introduction to Visual Storytelling is designed to take YIF students through the process of telling visual stories in the form of a documentary photo slideshow or video documentary about individual lives of social entrepreneurs/change makers. These are meant to be in-depth profiles of people who have dedicated their lives to creating positive social impact. Students will be required work in groups of 6 to conduct field research to identify their subjects, find out details of their lives, document a typical day-in-the-life of their subjects and assemble a cogent and visually compelling story sequence for public exhibition. In the process, students will explore ideas of story, “look”, visual impact, visual grammar, interview, editing and storytelling inside and outside the classroom. One team of 2 Fellows will have the assignment of designing and executing the project website.

The objective of this engagement is threefold:

Leadership in any field today requires the ability to articulate ideas clearly in private and public settings. The digital age provides easy access to visual tools that are now widely used for communicating ideas, information and passions. More importantly, these tools allow us to make sense of the world around us through the exploration of interconnections between traditional knowledge domains. For example; how public health challenges are connected to changes in climate, lack of education as well as socioeconomics can be explored through stories. Good storytelling helps make these communications compelling and effective. So, one objective is to formally introduce participants to practical ideas of visual storytelling.

In our fast paced lives, there is very little time dedicated to the details of a fast changing world around us. This leads to a limited worldview based on personal experiences. Yet, the signs of a fast changing world are all around us. Signs that can help us navigate the future. Looking more closely at the lives of social entrepreneurs/change makers in Delhi, will allow Fellows to perhaps reconsider ideas of success and achievement.

The success of any of these projects will be heavily dependent on the quality of collaboration within and among groups. The process of media making will be used as a first hand experience in collaborative problem solving and achievement.

Course: Group Dynamics

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course on Group Processes is intensely experiential. It builds on the strong liberal arts backgrounds in human biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, economics, history, philosophy and political science. Its purpose is to provide participants with an in depth understanding about group processes while they are in operation. It is usually easy to see what went right or wrong in a group, an organization or a community when one looks back in hindsight, or to understand what is going on in groups observed from a distance. To tune into these dynamics when we are embroiled in them ourselves and to take constructive actions when it could have a meaningful impact is a completely different issue. This is an art form which requires cognitive and emotional processing that is extremely demanding and draws on multiple logics simultaneously. The course offers new ways of understanding the relationship between “out of awareness” and “unrecognized” processes and the overt behavior of groups and their members. Participants will be introduced to, and invited to practice, the science and the crafts of “right-brain,” analogic, paradoxical ways of reasoning about group functioning, while linking them with the classic reasoning systems of “left-brain,” digital, casual logic.

Course: Leadership for the New Economy

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course addresses a number of basic issues central to leadership: wealth creation, innovation, cross-sector collaboration, wealth-distribution, birthing possibilities, fostering new futures. The course builds upon the earlier YIF leadership course and draws upon the thinking found in psychology, anthropology, sociology, management, politics, economics and philosophy. We start from the premise that all leadership acts require a form of thinking that transcends the conventional, while simultaneously standing on the shoulders of the reasoning processes used by organizational members and managers embroiled in every-day decisions about both the mundane and the profound. In short, leadership thinking is done in concert with, but is not captive to the conventional. We will focus on developing new reasoning capabilities about a wide variety of topics. Our deliberations will be both highly theoretical and highly practical. Students will find they are stretched to think in abstract and concrete ways simultaneously. No theory divorced from reality will be seen as relevant; no questions of application (“what we could or should do in any situation”) unattached to meaningful and robust theory will be entertained. All participants will be invited to push the envelope of your reasoning powers.

Course: Anthropology Today: Ethnographies and Entanglements around the World

Faculty: Mekhala Krishnamurthy

This is a course about anthropology’s engagement with some of the most challenging and compelling issues facing the world today. It is, inevitably, only a glimpse into a very diverse and vibrant discipline, but through a selection of creative and committed texts, written by anthropologists working in field sites across the globe, we will explore the critical insights and interconnections, ethical dilemmas and practical implications opened up by ethnographic approaches to contemporary predicaments. From finance to food systems, humanitarian intervention and the military to cybersociality, IT professionals to the pharmaceutical industry and the struggles of people living with AIDS, the readings will push us to consider different contexts, experiences and perspectives, de-stabilising the familiar, while relating to the exceptional and extraordinary. In the process, they might provoke us to reconsider our assumptions, confront regimes of power, inequality and injustice, but equally renew and expand our sense of individual and collective engagement in redefining the boundaries of the possible.

Course: Political science / IR: Joint teaching programme in International Relations for YIF

Faculty: Devesh Kapur / Eswaran Sridharan

This course provides an overview of international relations and foreign policy. It summarizes the history of international relations, concepts and theories that are widely used to view the world, the history and structure of international security, international organizations and the international political economy. On the basis of this extensive background on the international system, the past, present and possible futures of Indian foreign policy will be examined.

Course: Critical Thinking and Writing

Faculty: Eric Saranovitz

Writing is a means of expressing oneself in a clear, precise manner. We know what we know, but we must also let others know what we know, using our language as a tool. As opposed to other means of communications, writing concretizes our thoughts for the world to see, making them permanent, rather than fleeting. Writing allows us to edit and reflect upon our thoughts, before we communicate them. This course is key because it will show us how to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others in writing - a task central to all professional and personal pursuits in life.

Writing; as a process of learning, reflecting and building.

Writing for Improving one's writing is best done by doing it rather than talking about it. There will be writing in class every day, and writing assignments due as homework for every class.

Reading of texts from professional essayist and some from students. These texts will serve as a source for ideas as well as exemplify how different writers approach particular situations.

Sharing. We write for an audience. Your audience will be the faculty, as well as your peers in (and out) of class. The classroom will be a forum for discussing our writing and needs to be an open, and comfortable place to accomplish this task.

Essays: You will be required to hand in three 4-6 page final essays, typed proofread and edited.

Informal Writing: In addition, you will have to hand in at least two preliminary drafts for each one of the essays. Additionally there will be a number of informal writing exercises, both in and out of class.

Conferences: Conference with each individual during the term to discuss drafts on an individual basis will be conducted.

Course: Sociology of the Environment: Nature, Culture and Power

Faculty: Amita Baviskar

From the genome to global climate change, 'nature' is the centre of competing claims. Be it debates over BtBrinjal or mining in the Niyamgiri hills, environmental issues invoke a complex medley of scientific authority, human rights claims, as well as notions of national and planetary welfare. This course is based on the premise that environmental issues are inseparable from the question of power. How do contestations around knowledge and power shape the environment? How do cultural beliefs and social relations affect ideas and practices about nature? The course addresses these questions by exploring how environmental issues are socially constructed and contested. We ground our review of theory and method in ethnographic and empirical studies that extend from big game reserves in Tanzania to shopping malls in southern California, with a focus on contemporary Indian debates.

Course: Arts Appreciation – Illustrative & Performing Arts

Faculty: Anunaya Chaubey

The Art Appreciation Course will seek to make the students understand and enjoy the way a work of art communicates and works, not only as an aesthetic object but also as a cultural product .

Although one is able to subliminally respond to a work, more often than not, when asked to comment or talk about that work of art, that person gets defensive and apologetic. In expectation of proper comprehension and subsequent informed articulation of an aesthetic experience by the student, the Course will attempt to equip him with knowledge of such aspects of art as: its definition : expression and experience; its evolution down the ages: from cave art to contemporary times; elements of art ; movements and styles exhibiting the dynamic play of elements and the zeitgeist.The teaching and interactions in the classroom will be complemented by art workshops to enable the student to express the learning in practical terms ; visits to art galleries and exercises in thinking and writing critically on selected works of art therein.

Course: Essentials of Business

Faculty: Rajiv C Lochan

Business skills are an important ingredient for success, regardless of your chosen professional pursuit! This course is an overview "bridge" course into the essentials of business management. The course will parsimoniously focus on the most critical concepts of accounting, finance, operations, marketing and strategy and will require the application of these concepts through the five weeks (ten sessions of two hours each) of instruction for the course. There will also be an overview to effective problem solving and a thought-starter discussion on ethics as part of the curriculum.

As with most efforts in the real world, this course will require working in teams and in the process learning from each other. Specifically, each team will be the senior management team of a (disguised) real-world company and will be required to solve a series of business problems faced by the company. "Lecturing" will be restricted to a necessary minimum and the expectation is for an interactive "debate and discussion" in class.

The specific objectives of the course are four-fold. The course is designed to help you to:

Develop a deeper understanding of the most critical concepts of the foundational elements of business management (i.e. accounting, finance, operations, marketing and strategy)

Apply these concepts to various facets of your firm as a leader of the firm

Learn to collaborate in teams and practice the give-get of leveraging each others' strengths

Course: Governing the Indian Metropolis

While the current rate of urbanisation of India is still modest, its future is not. In the coming decades, millions of people will be joining cities.

Most Indian metropolises are the product of European imperialism - in its colonial form or not. But many others large cities pre-existed this phase of world history, following an old urban tradition whose resilience in today’s India needs to be assessed.

Given their size and the cultural diversity of the local society, cities are bound to be multi-religious, multi-ethnic and ridden with inequalities. While some groups are adversely affected by processes of ghettoization – or spatial segregation – in which class plays a major role, in combination with caste and religion – others are the crucible of new forms of civic expression and contestation.

Governing India’s metropolises is a challenge not only in terms of monitoring socio-cultural diversity and designating representatives in the best (democratic?) possible way, but also in terms of providing equitable access to a vast array of public services and amenities (water, electricity, transport, etc.). Public bodies limitations and the politicization of public service delivery add to the difficulty to meet those challenges.

Furthermore, most Asian metropolises are situated in a transnational space, between a rural and semi-rural hinterland - where the migrants and resources come from, and an international arena, confined to a region or open to intercontinental flows of people, capital and goods. This in-between position sets the scene for the confrontation – and sometimes clashes – between competing worldviews, conceptions of justice and claims to territorial access, of the many groups that compose the urban mosaic.

This one-semester course is intended to offer a comparative approach of these issues – integration and segregation, Politics of public services delivery, habitat and land access, globalisation of metropolises – on the basis of empirical case studies. Taught by Indian and French specialists of South Asia and Urban Studies, the course will situate itself at the crossroad of history, sociology, geography, economy, political science and international relations.

Course: Fundamentals of Public Speaking

Faculty: Ann Torfin Shoemake

Through experience in a variety of speaking situations, students gain self-confidence in organization of thought and self-expression.

Course Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes

Students will engage in a variety of activities designed to promote competency in public speaking delivery, organization of ideas, acquiring and evaluating supporting materials, word and language choice, audience analysis, effective listening, and the construction and presentation of narrative, informative and persuasive speeches.

Course Methodology

This is a hands-on, practice-oriented course for which individual participation is essential. Students will present relevant and well-planned speeches and act as a respectful and empathetic audience for their classmates. The classroom will serve as a non-threatening space for all speakers, with consideration and encouragement for those who experience public speaking apprehension.

Course: Sociological reasoning

Faculty: Andre Beteille

This short course on ‘Sociological Reasoning’ has been specifically designed for Young India Fellowship(YIF). It differs substantially in structure and content from the introductory courses offered in Sociology departments of Indian universities. While, generally, students of Sociology are introduced to the subject through papers on Sociological Theories and on debates about Indian Society, this paper emphasises on the unique and distinctive nature of sociological reasoning. It is an attempt to introduce students at YIF- who come from various different disciplinary backgrounds- to the enterprise of Sociology. While we will, no doubt, touch on the ideas of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Srinivasand others, the main thrust of the paper will be on explaining the difference between a sociologist’s viewpoint and the views of other disciplines. Sociology, here, will be presented as an empirical and comparative discipline in contrast to the normative and speculative ways of thinking about the world.

The course of ten lectures will focus on the following themes:

Introducing Sociology

Religion as a subject for Sociology

Politics as a subject for Sociology

Economics as subject for Sociology

Family, Kinship and Marriage

Caste

Social Class

Equality and Inequality

Institutions and Networks

Institutions of Democracy

It is through a discussion of these themes that will try to develop a deeper understanding of the enterprise of Sociology.

A short written examination at the end of the term will evaluate students’ comprehension of the reading material and the lectures.

Course: Foundations of Leadership

Faculty: Dwight Jaggard

The goal of Foundations of Leadership is to increase your capacity to effectively lead throughout your career and to teach others to lead as well. This involves understanding and learning – through reflecting on your own experience – about yourself and about working effectively with others. It also involves teambuilding activities and experiential learning modules that will vividly demonstrate the concepts that we study together in order to deeply embed these concepts. These abilities are essential in meeting critical personal, interpersonal, and organizational challenges.

Course: Globalisation, Media and Culture

Faculty: Radha Hegde

This course will introduce students to the subject of globalization and attendant areas of social and cultural transformations in contemporary life. Media and new technologies are redefining the meaning of communication, participation and the very fabric of everyday life. Technology enabled forms of interconnection and interactivity lead to a series of questions about the cultures and politics of social life. How do the flow and traffic of images, capital and people shift the relationship between the categories of the local, national and global? Is globalization predominantly a narrative of the West? Are alternative forms and compositions of globalization being scripted from emerging economies and national spaces? How are local cultural forms and media spaces being articulated and circulated? How are notions of tradition and modernity both colliding and reconciling? How are systems of communication producing new publics and forms of public spaces? How are these issues playing out in the Indian context and how are they gaining visibility globally? These are some of the questions that will animate our discussions as we explore the intersection of globalization, communication and culture. Using a historical and comparative framework, we will look at specific instances and case studies to understand the cultural processes that underwrite globalization.

Statistics and its Application in the Modern World

Faculty: Santosh Venkatesh

H. G. Wells once opined that statistical thinking would one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and write. He was not far off. We are inundated by statistical data in practically every domain. Exploratory surveys, empirical investigations, and position papers engender vast amounts of chance-driven data; news sources and technical reports present them and analysis, blogs, and reviews use the data to justify their positions. Statistical data influence everything from public policy to scientific investigation, from environmental science to statistical physics, from manufacturing reliability to supply chains, and from social science to politics.This course deals with how to statistically analyze data and make decisions based on the data. Probability forms the mathematical framework on which statistics rests. Building on basic probabilistic concepts, we will cover the following major topical themes instatistics with applications drawn from a welter of domains.

Sampling (with a discussion on the pernicious effects of bias and the rise of George Gallup, and a test case on quality control)

Estimation (presenting the three-cornered dance of constraints enlivened by a physicist’s visit to Monte Carlo and the burning question of whether polls are believable, testing beer and its unexpected consequences, and a test case on the viability of product promotions)

Hypothesis testing (with a discussion on the state of environmental science and the climate and the modeling of financial markets, and a test case on principled choice of business strategy)

The chi squared test for distributions (with a discussion on the efficacy of financial analysts, a startling accusation of fraud in psychology, the pervasiveness of incentives in modern life and their unexpected consequences, and the remarkable case of educator fraud in high-stakes educational testing)

Tests of means (with a discussion on the drug approval process with test cases on high profile retractions of drugs from the market)

Analysis of variance (with applications on the housing market, more on drugapprovals, and a test case on comparisons of company performance by market andsize)

Course: Gandhi’s Critique of Modernity in Contemporary Perspective

Faculty: Vivek Bhandari

Through a critical evaluation of the life and works of Gandhi, and the larger context that he inhabited, this course will examine this thinker’s view of the institutional apparatus and epistemologies that we have come to associate with the “modern condition.” By using Gandhi’s critique of modernity as the central thematic, the course will analyze his views on non-violence, the political strategy of civil disobedience, and how these are embedded in his perspectives on truth, trusteeship, the preservation of the environment, and satyagraha. Secondary texts, films, and the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, et al, will be analyzed in conjunction with Gandhi’s writings.

Course: Historical Perspectives: Reason and the Making of Modern India

Faculty: Rudranshu Mukherjee

The title of the course explains its purpose and its theme. What needs to be explicated is the way it approaches this very broad subject. The lectures will look at the life and career of certain individuals who used reason to put forward their arguments and also believed in the power of reason to transform society. It will place the individuals in a specific historical context – this will also serve to introduce to the class the basic contours of the making of modern India – and then analyse their careers in relation to the context. This will serve to bring in to focus their impact as well as their contradictions and slippages. A word of warning: It should not be assumed that these were the only individuals to have pursued reason in modern India. In fact, the course should provoke students to look at other stalwarts who were committed to the advocacy of reason.

Faculty: Giti Chandra

This course is an interdisciplinary study of national, ethnic or racial violence, its narrativisation and affects and its transformation into collective identity formation. It is focused around contemporary novels written by women and interrogates the ways in which these narratives are gendered by women who are subjected to such violence, who survive these conflicts and who narrate both the violence and the collective identity. The course will follow the argument that the violence directed against women in the course of national, racial or ethnic conflict is qualitatively different from the violence directed against men. This difference is defined and detailed in the course of the study and its significance is shown to be central both in the narrativisation of violence as well as in the construction of collective identities.

Course: Economics

Faculty: Shiv Kumar

The main objectives of this course are to (1) develop an appreciation of the basic concepts of microeconomics, and (2) explore their usefulness in helping us think about public policy interventions. The course will provide a useful perspective on how economists think about society’s problems. Emphasis will be laid on key principles and paradigms with applications to public policy as a way of introducing some of the ‘big ideas’ of microeconomics.

Faculty: Sanjeev Khanna

The main objectives of this course are to (1) develop an appreciation of the basic concepts of microeconomics, and (2) explore their usefulness in helping us think about public policy interventions. The course will provide a useful perspective on how economists think about society’s problems. Emphasis will be laid on key principles and paradigms with applications to public policy as a way of introducing some of the ‘big ideas’ of microeconomics.

Course: A Hands-on Introduction to Visual Storytelling: Change makers

Faculty: Sanjeev Chatterjee

A Hands-on Introduction to Visual Storytelling is designed to take YIF students through the process of telling visual stories in the form of a documentary photo slideshow or video documentary about individual lives of social entrepreneurs/change makers. These are meant to be in-depth profiles of people who have dedicated their lives to creating positive social impact. Students will be required work in groups of 6 to conduct field research to identify their subjects, find out details of their lives, document a typical day-in-the-life of their subjects and assemble a cogent and visually compelling story sequence for public exhibition. In the process, students will explore ideas of story, “look”, visual impact, visual grammar, interview, editing and storytelling inside and outside the classroom. One team of 2 Fellows will have the assignment of designing and executing the project website.

The objective of this engagement is threefold:

Leadership in any field today requires the ability to articulate ideas clearly in private and public settings. The digital age provides easy access to visual tools that are now widely used for communicating ideas, information and passions. More importantly, these tools allow us to make sense of the world around us through the exploration of interconnections between traditional knowledge domains. For example; how public health challenges are connected to changes in climate, lack of education as well as socioeconomics can be explored through stories. Good storytelling helps make these communications compelling and effective. So, one objective is to formally introduce participants to practical ideas of visual storytelling.

In our fast paced lives, there is very little time dedicated to the details of a fast changing world around us. This leads to a limited worldview based on personal experiences. Yet, the signs of a fast changing world are all around us. Signs that can help us navigate the future. Looking more closely at the lives of social entrepreneurs/change makers in Delhi, will allow Fellows to perhaps reconsider ideas of success and achievement.

The success of any of these projects will be heavily dependent on the quality of collaboration within and among groups. The process of media making will be used as a first hand experience in collaborative problem solving and achievement.

Course: Group Dynamics

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course on Group Processes is intensely experiential. It builds on the strong liberal arts backgrounds in human biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, economics, history, philosophy and political science. Its purpose is to provide participants with an in depth understanding about group processes while they are in operation. It is usually easy to see what went right or wrong in a group, an organization or a community when one looks back in hindsight, or to understand what is going on in groups observed from a distance. To tune into these dynamics when we are embroiled in them ourselves and to take constructive actions when it could have a meaningful impact is a completely different issue. This is an art form which requires cognitive and emotional processing that is extremely demanding and draws on multiple logics simultaneously. The course offers new ways of understanding the relationship between “out of awareness” and “unrecognized” processes and the overt behavior of groups and their members. Participants will be introduced to, and invited to practice, the science and the crafts of “right-brain,” analogic, paradoxical ways of reasoning about group functioning, while linking them with the classic reasoning systems of “left-brain,” digital, casual logic.

Course: Leadership for the New Economy

Faculty: Kenwyn Smith

This course addresses a number of basic issues central to leadership: wealth creation, innovation, cross-sector collaboration, wealth-distribution, birthing possibilities, fostering new futures. The course builds upon the earlier YIF leadership course and draws upon the thinking found in psychology, anthropology, sociology, management, politics, economics and philosophy. We start from the premise that all leadership acts require a form of thinking that transcends the conventional, while simultaneously standing on the shoulders of the reasoning processes used by organizational members and managers embroiled in every-day decisions about both the mundane and the profound. In short, leadership thinking is done in concert with, but is not captive to the conventional. We will focus on developing new reasoning capabilities about a wide variety of topics. Our deliberations will be both highly theoretical and highly practical. Students will find they are stretched to think in abstract and concrete ways simultaneously. No theory divorced from reality will be seen as relevant; no questions of application (“what we could or should do in any situation”) unattached to meaningful and robust theory will be entertained. All participants will be invited to push the envelope of your reasoning powers.

Course: Ethics and Technology

Faculty: Kenneth Foster

The course will consider ethical issues related to the creation and use of technology. Lectures, reading, and class discussion will cover topics ranging from the ethical responsibility of professionals engaged in research and the development of technology to “macroethics” and ethical constraints on use of technology. The course will include lectures, readings, and class discussion on topics ranging from principles of ethics articulated in different philosophical traditions, codes of ethics of engineering and professional scientific organizations, and generally accepted ethical principles for scientific research and human +experimentation. Students will analyze current issues involving ethics and technology in individual written work, group presentations, and group-generated policy recommendations.

Course: Anthropology Today: Ethnographies and Entanglements around the World

Faculty: Mekhala Krishnamurthy

This is a course about anthropology’s engagement with some of the most challenging and compelling issues facing the world today. It is, inevitably, only a glimpse into a very diverse and vibrant discipline, but through a selection of creative and committed texts, written by anthropologists working in field sites across the globe, we will explore the critical insights and interconnections, ethical dilemmas and practical implications opened up by ethnographic approaches to contemporary predicaments. From finance to food systems, humanitarian intervention and the military to cybersociality, IT professionals to the pharmaceutical industry and the struggles of people living with AIDS, the readings will push us to consider different contexts, experiences and perspectives, de-stabilising the familiar, while relating to the exceptional and extraordinary. In the process, they might provoke us to reconsider our assumptions, confront regimes of power, inequality and injustice, but equally renew and expand our sense of individual and collective engagement in redefining the boundaries of the possible.

Course: Listening

Faculty: Lisbeth Lipari

Listening is central to thought and communication but we often ignore its importance. In our anxiety to speak and be heard we can easily overlook our failure to listen. This course explores the centrality of listening to all modes of communication and delves deeply into the indissoluble relationships of listening to language, speaking, thinking, aesthetics, & culture. Through course readings, lectures, discussions, exercises, papers, and projects, students will be exposed to a variety of perspectives involving the habitus of listening (listening as being, thinking, and understanding—inner speech and human consciousness, cultural listening); the difficulties of listening (the failure to listen—difference, silence); and the aesthetics of listening (soundscapes and acoustic ecology--music and auditory worlds).

Learning Goals:

To enhance & improve your listening awareness and capacities

To understand the transactional relationship between listening, thinking & speaking.

To demonstrate holistic thinking about listening and its relation to language and thought.

To identify, appreciate, and analyze the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of listening.

Course: Managing Business for Growth & Sustainability

Faculty: Rishikesha Krishnan

With most of the world embracing a capitalist economic model, corporations and businesses are explicitly recognised as engines of economic growth. The business sector has come to occupy a more important position in society than ever before. This course focuses on the business sector with the following two objectives:

What role does business play in society?

How can businesses be managed to create wealth for their owners as well as be positive forces in society?

To answer these questions, we will use case studies, readings, lectures and some in-class video films.

Course: Political science / IR: Joint teaching programme in International Relations for YIF

Faculty: Devesh Kapur / Eswaran Sridharan

This course provides an overview of international relations and foreign policy. It summarizes the history of international relations, concepts and theories that are widely used to view the world, the history and structure of international security, international organizations and the international political economy. On the basis of this extensive background on the international system, the past, present and possible futures of Indian foreign policy will be examined.

Course: Critical Thinking and Writing

Faculty: Eric Saranovitz

Writing is a means of expressing oneself in a clear, precise manner. We know what we know, but we must also let others know what we know, using our language as a tool. As opposed to other means of communications, writing concretizes our thoughts for the world to see, making them permanent, rather than fleeting. Writing allows us to edit and reflect upon our thoughts, before we communicate them. This course is key because it will show us how to communicate our thoughts and ideas to others in writing - a task central to all professional and personal pursuits in life.

Writing; as a process of learning, reflecting and building.

Writing for Improving one's writing is best done by doing it rather than talking about it. There will be writing in class every day, and writing assignments due as homework for every class.

Reading of texts from professional essayist and some from students. These texts will serve as a source for ideas as well as exemplify how different writers approach particular situations.

Sharing. We write for an audience. Your audience will be the faculty, as well as your peers in (and out) of class. The classroom will be a forum for discussing our writing and needs to be an open, and comfortable place to accomplish this task.

Essays: You will be required to hand in three 4-6 page final essays, typed proofread and edited.

Informal Writing: In addition, you will have to hand in at least two preliminary drafts for each one of the essays. Additionally there will be a number of informal writing exercises, both in and out of class.

Conferences: Conference with each individual during the term to discuss drafts on an individual basis will be conducted.

Course: Sociology of the Environment: Nature, Culture and Power

Faculty: Amita Baviskar

From the genome to global climate change, 'nature' is the centre of competing claims. Be it debates over BtBrinjal or mining in the Niyamgiri hills, environmental issues invoke a complex medley of scientific authority, human rights claims, as well as notions of national and planetary welfare. This course is based on the premise that environmental issues are inseparable from the question of power. How do contestations around knowledge and power shape the environment? How do cultural beliefs and social relations affect ideas and practices about nature? The course addresses these questions by exploring how environmental issues are socially constructed and contested. We ground our review of theory and method in ethnographic and empirical studies that extend from big game reserves in Tanzania to shopping malls in southern California, with a focus on contemporary Indian debates.

Course: Arts Appreciation – Illustrative & Performing Arts

Faculty: Anunaya Chaubey

The Art Appreciation Course will seek to make the students understand and enjoy the way a work of art communicates and works, not only as an aesthetic object but also as a cultural product .

Although one is able to subliminally respond to a work, more often than not, when asked to comment or talk about that work of art, that person gets defensive and apologetic. In expectation of proper comprehension and subsequent informed articulation of an aesthetic experience by the student, the Course will attempt to equip him with knowledge of such aspects of art as: its definition : expression and experience; its evolution down the ages: from cave art to contemporary times; elements of art ; movements and styles exhibiting the dynamic play of elements and the zeitgeist.The teaching and interactions in the classroom will be complemented by art workshops to enable the student to express the learning in practical terms ; visits to art galleries and exercises in thinking and writing critically on selected works of art therein.

Course: Science Technolgy and Human Values

Faculty: P L Dhar

The humanity today faces two kinds of problems which threaten its very survival on planet earth; viz. technogenic problems like climate change and resource depletion, and social problems of strife, violence, organized crime and terrorism. The course aims to encourage students to investigate these problems in depth and facilitate this investigation through suitable interventions. At the end of the course, it is expected that the students would be able to appreciate that : i) that science, technology and human values are interconnected ; ii) All these problems have their roots in a confusion about human values; iii) Attempts to solve these problems through technological interventions alone are often counterproductive; iv) Sustainable survival on this planet earth needs a transformation in human consciousness and establishment of social order based on universal human values.

Course: Contemporary International Development

Faculty: Subir Sinha

The course exploring how the international architecture of development – that is, the network of actors and institutions, and the dominant ideas shaping development interventions – has emerged, how it has changed over time, what successes it has had, and what have the barriers to fuller success. The readings place the Indian experience in historical and comparative perspective.

Development Regimes in Historical Perspective
This session provides an overview of international development from the late-19th century to the late-20th. It also introduces some key concepts that will form the analytical vocabulary for the course.

The New Development Paradigms
We consider the rise of ‘rational choice’ oriented frameworks in development interventions, and review 4 key concepts in the new development paradigms that emerged from the crisis of the 1980s-1990s, namely ‘sustainable livelihoods’, ‘good governenace’, ‘social capital’, and ‘failed states’.

The State in Contemporary Development
Even though the new development paradigm was ‘market-centred’, it still made an argument for substantial role of the state in the development process. However, this was not the state of old. A new debate started over the ‘new’ developmental state, which we review this week.

Civil Society in Development
One key element of the new development paradigm is that the state should be divested so some key roles in the development process, particularly with respect to ‘social sector’ development. Here, the role of ‘civil society’ has received a lot of support. And, in general, civil society has been equated with ‘NGOs’. But ‘civil society’ is not a term with a clear-cut meaning. How have conflicts over what is ‘civil society’ affected development interventions?

The Agrarian Question Today
In most countries of the global south, more than 50% of the population is rural and is connected in some way or another with agriculture. Yet, the agricultural sector is considered to be in some crisis for more than a couple of decades. What is the crisis of the agrarian sector today, and what are some ways out suggested by experts?

The Urban Planet
On a planetary scale, more than 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities. What specific challenges does it throw to development experts and agencies, and what has been the record of policies aimed at ameliorating the conditions of the urban poor.

Humanitarianism
Since the last decade and a half, the issue of ‘humantiarianism’ has inched its way to the centrestage of international development thinking and practice. What are some powerful justifications for international humanitarian assistance, and what are some of their drawbacks?

Democratisation
The Arab Spring reminded us last year that not all parts of the world are democratic, and that the yearning for democracy is strong even in countries where authoritarian governments delivered on the basics of a good life, such as in Libya. What does democracy mean today, and how is it connected with development issues?

New Thinking on Poverty and the Poor
The centre of development thinking and policies are ‘the poor’, though, over a century and more, poverty has not been eliminated. We review some recent writings on the conceptualization of poverty, and some new advice on how to eliminate it. What are the strength and weaknesses of these approaches?

Some Recent “Success Stories.”
Brazil, China, India and South Africa, the so-called BRICs, are held up as evidence that there are new trajectories of national development, and that the balance of power that sustained international development is now shifting towards these newly emergent countries. To what extent would you join the celebration of the new models, and what would be your reservations?

Subir Sinha

Other Programme Support

The learning from the core courses will be supplemented by regular perspective and skill building workshops and interactive sessions.

Writing Centre:

Building effective communication skills is a core mandate of the YIF curriculum. A dedicated Writing Centre has been set up to deliver courses and workshops in writing skills.

Workshops & Seminars

Communication workshops:

A dedicated Communication Centre has been set up to deliver courses and workshops in writing and presentation skills. The Centre will also assist students with handling the demands of the curriculum by teaching them how to : understand content, carry out research, write papers and build presentations. While all students will be taught the rudiments of critical thinking, good writing and oral presentation skills, these will be supplemented with one-on-one counseling.

Team building workshop:

Through the year students will organise and participate in topical seminars led by senior leaders. They will also get opportunities to participate in select seminars outside the YIF programme (in Delhi).

Leadership Seminars:

Leadership training experts will organize "off-sites" where students will engage in outdoor activities to hone their team-building and group leadership skills.

Workshops & Seminars

Through the year Fellows participate in leadership and skill building workshops which are delivered by well-known leadership trainers and experts in different skill areas like research methods, public speaking, presentations, team building etc

Experiential Learning Module (ELM)

Given that Fellows have limited professional experience prior to joining the programme, YIF has conceived the Experiential Learning Module, or ELM, to complement their academic work with real work experience. The ELM work is supported by a team of coaches who provide essential guidance on structuring business problems, analysis and presentations.

Structure

YIF requires its Fellows to undertake eight month-long engagement with an organisation after completing the first two terms of the programme. These projects are derived from different companies, organisations and institutions across various sectors.

Objective

The objective of these projects is to:

Develop basic skills of building and working in diverse teams

Apply essential techniques of structuring and problem solving

Gain real life experience by working on live projects with clients

Create new opportunities for professional advancement with the client organisation

Development Office of Shri Naveen Jindal

To identify problem areas with respect to the implementation of the National Food Security Bill in the Kurukshetra constituency followed by assessment and evaluation of the problems and recommending solutions to enhance the efficiency of the implementation of the policy. To also identify, analyse, evaluate the problems that may be encountered with respect to making contraceptives more easily accessible to the general public in Kurukshetra in the ‘Citizens’ Alliance for Reproductive Health and Rights awareness programme and executing the recommendations given.

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) – 1

To develop and popularise BRICS rating systems and benchmarks ranging from corporate governance performance assessments to capital market standards. To identify multilateral/pluri-lateral bodies that have created common benchmarks and standards in the past, aggregate and list to work out a viability matrix for the BRICS context.

Observer Research Foundation (ORF) – 2

To identify the on-going people to people exchanges in the spheres of education, science and technology, healthcare and media between BRICS (bilateral cooperation), and aggregate information on the usefulness, regularity and institutional mechanisms underpinning such exchanges. To also conduct a SWAT assessment of the various sectors, and collaborations instituted to find drivers for success or failures and suggest specific opportunities for collaboration within BRICS.

Project with Dr. Anunaya Chaubey

To bridge the gap between the youth of the country and the rich heritage of little traditions that surround them through research and by creating youth focused modules to engage with the little traditions, and bringing to the fore practitioners of the traditions followed by documentation using mediums appropriate to the traditions.

Indian Football Foundation

To impact a rapidly growing organization and to experientially learn about different aspects of working and contributing to numerous football driven social initiatives. This would involve identifying potential areas of intervention, fund-raising, formulating partnerships, plan and execute events and personally assess impact.

McKinsey Global Institute

To understand the evolution of state growth trajectories in India due to the interesting paradigm shift in Indian economy, with some of the poorest/backward states growing at unprecedented rates. To understand the core reasons of what caused this shift in growth trajectory, its sustainability, lessons for other states/countries and lead indicators which help us figure out break-out states in advance.

Space Matters

To research, document and design a heritage interpretation kit for the city of Delhi weaving around the conventional, often talked about realms of the Delhi heritage, and yet exploring the less familiar spaces and stories extensively in an accessible way. This project will use design as a tool in interpreting and communicating this heritage through a kit.

The Aman Trust

The History Project: The History Project aims to bring together conflicting versions of a shared past of India and Pakistan, in an effort to highlight the biases shaping the ideology of our youth to enable access in their formative years to alternative perspectives on their shared heritage and to encourage a culture of rational and critical thinking with particular focus on information that shapes the view of our respective lineage.

Jugnu Project

To leverage mobile phones for personalizing student learning, providing actionable outcomes to teachers, and hence plugging the learning gaps among students. It aims to supplement teachers by making them more effective in their teaching.

Central Square Foundation (CSF)

The Eklavya Project: To enable the enrollment and social integration of weak and disadvantaged children in elite and affordable private schools by raising demand and awareness about RTE Section 12 in Delhi (25% reservation of seats in private schools for weak and disadvantaged children).

Headlines Today

To understand departments in the news organization and identify areas of optimization in each process and to improve positioning of Headlines Today through reviewing content and programming schedules in comparison with top three competitors.

The Idea Works - Golf Tournament

To string together diverse stakeholders, using the Golf Tournament, into an ecosystem that will encourage young people from across the Commonwealth to compete, collaborate and co-create the future to foster a culture of entrepreneurship to build a community of inspired job creators rather than job seekers.

Wide Angle Films (Nalanda Project)

To produce a 52 minute documentary on Nalanda, the unique temple of learning and leading center of dissemination of knowledge, called 'The Spirit of Nalanda' that evaluates its development as well as sheds light on the social dynamics of the time.

Prayas – JAC

To implement the model focusing on aetiology, intervention and aftercare developed for the juvenile delinquents and to work with marginalized girls and women [those afflicted with the abuse and trauma of sex trafficking, beggary, child labor/child marriage etc.] to test and research the efficacy of the model developed and provide opportunities for education, vocational training, counseling, recreation and over all development of the juveniles.

Samaj Pragati Sahayog (SPS)

To help realise a women-farmer owned, managed and led corporation that provides end to end services from farm gate to consumer. To assess growth opportunities for including more SHGs for formation of new producer companies, evolve a comprehensive mobilization and communication process so that members are convinced about the long term benefits of becoming part of the company that they would also own.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

To address client presence at the Base of the Pyramid by building a set of assumptions/protocols in specific sectors such as Power, Manufacturing, and Water Treatment by identifying reach at a district level in India and to examine how and where distribution of resources happens across different sectors. To understand access issues to resources such as health, infrastructure, and financial services to comprehend the definition of poverty beyond the general income level.

9dot9

To create content, Identify, digitise, summarise and present relevant content as well as launch a strategy, along with thinking of innovative ways to make the online magazine’s presence felt in a cluttered digital space and bring readers ideas, thoughts and writings from our rich past that they wouldn’t normally come across.

Studio-X

To research, conceptualize, design and execute a range of furniture/products from paper using the inherent properties of the material. To come up with a new form language for the material, owing to its attributes and its limitations and to find an expression in the paper while keeping in mind ergonomics, ease of use and its applications.

Project Niveshi

To design and build a platform for retail individual investors to invest in Micro Mutual Funds keeping in mind the small percentage of household savings that are invested in the equities market and the current investment avenues in India.

Perfect Relations

To look into the undercurrents which drive the voter sentiment, and the vote swings such as anti-incumbency, development, inflation, caste, religion, etc., in order to study these factors and how are they expected to influence the results which the General Elections throw up and design a Newsletter.

Centre for Media and Strategic Studies (CMSS)

To provide Research Support for the CMSS initiatives and be expected to manage the on-line presence of the Centre and coordinate as well as actively participate in the various activities, seminars, and lectures as they engage India’s leading media houses and individuals in debate on India’s media policy on the role that media can play in helping resolve Geopolitical issues, Foreign Policy, Bilateral relations, Democracy and nation-building, National security, Ethnic conflict, Maritime Security, Terrorism, Environmental conflict, Energy crisis and more.

Harley Davidson

To rev up apparel sales through e-commerce channels by researching on policy framework, exploring the present market and recommending key strategy and action plans for launching eCommerce sales of HD apparel in India.

Quidich – A Bird's Eye View

Quidich is a start-up venture which deals with the nascent sector of aerial filming. Quidich provides aerial images and sequences that deliver jaw-dropping clarity and a perspective never seen before. With state of the art technology and Ultra-HD resolutions, the team of 3 members can realize any shot that their clients imagine. Rahat Kulshreshtha is the founder of the company, along with Chahal Garg and Gaurav Mehta as partners.

Action for Ability Development and Inclusion (AADI)

To map the key concepts and skills that form the primary education curriculum for children with disabilities and evolve teaching learning material that would aid the learning process. The material identified and developed would need to cater to different learning styles and adhere to child-centric learning.

PRS India

To make a strategy to engage with the citizens for the upcoming Elections making legislative engagement a priority for the people of India and to work on finding ways to focus the discussion and debate around the 2014 national elections on policy and legislative issues in the country.

Centre for Civil Society

To identify and research at least 100 areas across sectors (education, livelihood, governance, finance, administration, economy, etc.) that can be reformed by identifying the unintended consequences of past policy actions and prescribing ideas that can help remove these bottlenecks (legal or structural).

Micro Grid Solution - Rural Electrification (Group C)

To create Micro Grid solutions with transmission and distribution networks, providing basic lighting solutions to each and every household, with mobile charging included, which will be sustainable and a more reliable source of energy for every house as compared to lanterns and home lighting systems. To devise a robust collection and revenue model to make the projects commercially viable by creating local entrepreneurs and Village Electrification Committees.

Research in Politics & Economics

To provide research assistance in the areas of coordination (approvals, permits from government ministries), data collection and data analysis for projects such as Natural Resource Wealth and Politics (mining); Employment Effects of Road Construction in Rural India (PMGSY); Politics and Local Economic Growth and World Bank: Rinku Morgai - spatial distribution/economic census.

Cinemad

To profile Cinemad to potential clientele by expanding the online presence by defining and creating the Cinemad web site, engaging with social media, youtube and vimeo, and by creating a business plan by populating the potentials list (both local and global), making an active contact plan.

Shoshit Samadhan Kendra (SSK)

To implement best teaching and academic practices from across the world at the SSK, a fully funded residential school for children of the Musahar community, by designing and implementing the programs right from teacher training for their professional enhancement to student involvement for making them responsible citizens.

Recyclewala Films

To research about existing cultural centers in major cities of India as well as the prominent cultural centers in the world, and understand their model, functioning, funding, positive aspects and shortcomings and to understand the requirements, expectations and challenges faced by the filmmakers, artists, and art enthusiasts in the current scenario in relation the lack of such a cultural space.

The De-Lhi-terrati Project

The De-Lhi-tterati Project is an ambitious venture undertaken by 3 Young India Fellows under the tutelage of Ruma Banerjee, Professor of Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan Medical School. The project, while being at the forefront of collaboration between Ashoka University and the University of Michigan, is two-fold in objective: 1. To look at the life cycle of litter in Delhi’s local context through diverse lenses. 2. To connect the project to Litterati – an online movement to clean up Earth, one piece of trash at a time.

American India Foundation - Rickshaw Sangh

To evaluate the potential and the impact of the Rickshaw Sangh Program through interaction with the beneficiaries, NGO Partners who implement and banks that provide the loans. This requires an in-depth perspective into the program through primary research, field research and gathering relevant feedback and collating the data onto a report with recommendations that need to be undertaken on ground /programming with suggestions for generating a wider impact.

Ashoka University

To devise a comprehensive marketing strategy that is aligned with the vision of the University. This will include devising a brand identity and extending the same while developing a focused marketing plan. This entails a two pronged action plan: the first is to carry out consumer research, surveys, focused group analysis plus a constant engagement with founders, faculty and curriculum development team crucial to develop a clear cut identity for Ashoka University. This is to design a nuanced idea of the curriculum and the core offering that will be pitched to the target segment (both students and parents). The second includes establishing a direct contact with the target segment, pan India in its reach, through creating and executing of essential collaterals like websites, posters, ads and presentation pitches for both online and offline promotional activities.

Baichung Bhutia Football School

A three pronged agenda in which the first is to devise a detailed marketing plan for the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools (BBFS) in NCR and Mumbai. The second is developing the operational processes both technical and Non technical in a pan India Individual talent scouting program and inter school league. And the third in the formation of a country wide college league the team will assist in sponsorship procurement, execution and impact assessment post-activity both from a technical standpoint and a sponsor perspective.

British High Commission: Low carbon supply chains

A three stage agenda which involves creating a large network of Indian/international companies in India and companies who form part of their supply chain to begin with. Then identifying ongoing initiatives for greener supply chains and becoming aware of the obstacles and issues posed by different stakeholders e.g. NGOs, Government, Unions et through data analysis, literature review and interviews. Finally real time engagement with one company to identify measures for a carbon, energy and resource efficient supply chain and if possible implement the same.

Chai Point

The task is to develop a strong “local store marketing” framework that builds Chai Point stores as the ideal brand for freshly brewed ‘Chai’ targeting specifically the “working class”. The scope of the project centered is around 3 soon to be operational stores in NCR Delhi with its Banglore store as a reference point of its core business operations.

Earthy Goods Foundation

Project aimed at developing a strong communication platform connecting retail buyers, artisans and product developers. This would include creating an engaging social media content, building a community of potential consumers, a channel for regular interaction with various stakeholders, promotional contests and tracking product trends. In addition to which a strong responsive logistics system to be created to facilitate order placements, feedback and innovative product strategies like product recommendation and e-updates.

Grind Master Machines

To conceptualize business to business marketing strategy for specific African markets for the purposes of execution before the IMTEX 2013 exhibition. Divided in two phases: the first includes Customer Survey and Response Analysis, Market Research centered on Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa the second includes working with Elephant Design to develop marketing materials. The final deliverables includes a detailed written marketing content, website development along with brochures and corporate video for the first phase and a Market Research report with respect to Customer survey, specified African markets and Internet Marketing in the second.

Harley Davidson

Hector Beverages

Understanding the sales and distribution channel and bringing about uniformity in the non-linear performance of sales people across the various zones and routes of the state. Devise strategic moves to understand and improve the manufacturing, quality, marketing and finance to help the firm realize its vision. Also put to work the best possible and feasible solutions discovered in the process

ICF International

The project aims at acquiring a holistic comprehension of the Energy sector in India with a particular focus on renewable energy. This entails a 3-stage study: A study of power markets and how they have evolved through data analysis and research using which develop a marketing strategy for a short term power market report. A study of policies affecting energy scenario in the past and derive strategies to combat challenges and conclusions. And study of the energy efficiency in the renewable market and to learn the opening up of the sector and its implementation based on sourcing, key strengths and initial skill set all of which must be collated to form a report on opportunities in the renewable energy sector.

Idea Cellular

The overall objective is to study and analyze the probable changes in the Indian telecom sector from 2012-2022 with respect to policy, regulations, legislations and judicial decisions. Anticipate challenges arising from these changes and position idea cellular as a brand to meet the same. Finally, devise a strategy to increase its market share in the next 10 years while bearing in mind the probable state of the telecomm sector considering all market and non market factors.

Kalam Foundation – Social Stock Exchange

To design and implement online Social Stock exchange. Critically analyze the concept, map corporate linkages with the stock exchange and launch a full blown web based model including the handling of pitches and live accounts.

Mapping India’s Global Investment Footprint

To carry out a four pronged analyses to understand the impact of India’s FDI on developing African and Asian markets. The first to understand available RBI data and gain further insights through interviews, mapping out sectors of investment not recorded and build a dataset for the same. Second to track & analyze also propose a mechanism for the Indian FDI received by regional hubs like Singapore and Mauritius. Third to evaluate the impact of Indian FDI on economic growth in one specific country each from Asia and Africa through literature reviews & interviews, also develop a mapping mechanism to track FDI flows for the same. Lastly to debate and present the current trends in FDI and highlight areas for further analysis and promising areas for future engagement for the DFID.

McKinsey Global Institute

The task is to identify early warning signs of macroeconomic crises through an in-depth research and analysis of past episodes of macro crises and academic literature review. Along with that the team must also highlight thresholds beyond which these early warning signals start signaling stress/ crises. The final excel and PowerPoint document must provide an integrated understanding of the final objective.

Media for Change

Online chapter to create a community of Media change makers. The task is subdivided into various levels which involve largely building a directory of potential people and organizations, identifying stories, creating an editorial structure, using facebook as an initial promotional platform and launching of a website along with a business plan for sustaining it over a prolonged period. The project may also spillover to develop a monthly newsletter providing Mfc news and information.

National Rural Livelihoods Mission

Building ‘producer organizations’ an initiative for livelihood promotion for small and marginal producers entailing a 4 fold agenda. Review of existing literature, interaction with stakeholders, a detailed analysis of opportunities probable constraints and best practices on ground and creation of a strategy/protocol for formulation of such organizations.

Shri Naveen Jindal’s Development Office

The entire project is to be carried out in 3 stages focused on carrying out socio-economic development activities in Kurukshetra Constituency. The first involves identification of opportunities in various schemes and programs, conducting demographic, financial research, impact analysis and preparing an implementation scheme. In the next segment the team would co-ordinate with locals, community leaders and public officials to clearly articulate the intention of each of the schemes to ensure proper communication and support structure. Finally a step by step implementation which would also involve monitoring and modifications if any in accordance with the feedback received from the field.

Perfect Relations

The project entails conceptualizing, Designing and assimilating content for the launch of a policy review magazine. Apart from which tracking policies analyzing its impact, getting interviews and eventual collation of the material in the form of a policy yearbook would also form a part of the final output.

Rajiv Gandhi Foundation

To conduct a detailed analysis of the socio-economic development in Raebareli District, UP and understand the roles played by the district agencies in the overall development plan. The project will be carried out in 6 phases, at the end of each of which a detailed document will be created and presented. The phases begin with gathering of data, analysis and identification of critical issues, field work, consolidating the issues and solutions and finally designing a development framework for addressing the issues and requirements of the region.

Researching the Spectacle

To conduct a scholarly research of consumer culture in contemporary India through both theoretical and empirical field research. The final report which could be a Publishable article / book chapter / presentation for YIF will integrate an in-depth ethnographic study along with data analysis from a qualitative perspective.

Senior Citizens

Leveraging technology to meet the requirements of Senior Citizens also called as ‘companion for senior citizens’. The task is to tap into the potential of current technologies for Mapping out the requirements for the Senior Citizens and prioritizing the same. Through several means such as providing web based services or bringing in modifications of products to make them more user friendly. The final output would also require a business plan to sustain the venture in the future.

Shakespeare and Queer Theory

SHRAMIC

Strengthen and Harmonize Research and Action on Migration in the Indian Context or SHRAMIC project requires the team to collate information regarding a range of socio-economic issues relating to migration through interactions with NGO and document experiences of migrants and migrant household. Culminating into a working paper /papers on issues related to Legal and Structural Impediments to Migration based on the survey already undertaken.

Society for Scientific Values

The task is to provide inputs for the SSV website and also prepare a suitable material and case studies ( both real and hypothetical) for discussion in a learning mode in order to foster Ethical Values among UG and PG students and professional scientists and engineers in a variety of areas such as Physics, Chemistry , Bio sciences, Environment , Energy ,Engineering etc.

Studio-X

A research & design venture to find solutions for critical urban issues that are proving to be impediments for its holistic development. These may include subjects like Public space, recreational space, public transport, land/sea edge (waterfront) pedestrian circulation, urban infrastructure and so on. Each topic thoroughly researched assimilated as a publication, exhibition or workshop/conference thus disseminating new ideas and adding vigor to the development discourse on the future of cities.

2UID

Objective is to reduce the demand and supply gap of UID in India through an incentive driven application process. Thus based on intensive market research and discussion with UIDAI officials, the team will identify an application of the UID number that addresses a critical issue in India. Further, the team will run a prototype of the application in a selected district, analyze collated results and build a national operating model. The Model will incorporate inflection points to the variable dependents and also be made investor favorable, in order to ensure maximum replication.

UK - Trade and Investment

The project is fundamentally looking at new avenues of business development between UK in India in diverse sectors and locations. The focus areas include third markets overseas, business options in village/ rural / slum locations, identifying futuristic options for UK business/knowledge, evaluating how Indian business perceive UK business and effectiveness of current Indo-UK trade investments and finally to propose a business plan for turning the recommendations into practical solutions and opportunities. Final output would require a comprehensive report along with a business plan with real outcomes.

UK in India : Youth Engagement Strategy

Broadly speaking it calls for a design and strategy to improve and develop new avenues for UK Government’s engagement with Indian youth. The focus is on conceptualizing a vision, evaluating UK’s current outreach and youth perception, identifying target audiences, Developing and implementing new topics, project events and channels to deliver this outreach. Conduct at least 3 youth events and evaluate project outreach and create a business plan for the same. Apart from hosting youth events their deliverables include presenting polling results, increase the number of followers on UK from India in social networking sites and present the business plan to the high commissioner.

Veoni

To create an active e-commerce portal, particularly focused on Chanderi products, by the end of March 2013. To achieve a sustained operation team required to carry out tasks ranging from fund raising, design and registration of website, profiling of artisans, logistics and marketing. The company's functional presence will be in small pockets in Delhi to begin with but avenues for diversification into surrounding areas to be eventually explored.

Young Africa Fellowship Programme (YAFP)

The project requires the team to develop a yearlong model liberal arts programme aligned along the YIFP vision in Africa to groom young Africans across the continent as future leaders. This would require the team to build a database of top institutions, universities where selection of prospective students could be carried out. Then identity academic institutions across Africa, US, UK, France and India who can help build an effective curriculum and provide the necessary faculty. Communicate with individuals ranging from academicians, politicians, media persons, corporate houses and young leaders on a global scale for marketing, obtaining sponsors, ELM Projects and eventual placements. Coordinate the functioning between the academic and administrative aspects and eventually help execute as members of INDIAFRICA team.

BASIX (FLINT) – Instrument to measure financial access

The development of an Indian Index of Financial Literacy, Inclusion and Transactions (FLINT Index). The projects involves: 1. Data Analysis (data collection, data cleaning, feeding, compilation, analysis, table generation, etc.), and computation of the FLINT Index for several vulnerable segments (such as landless women) and regions (such as North Bihar) 2. Preparation of Report on the FLINT Index with Recommendations on how it can be institutionalised 3. Field Testing of Recommendations

BASIX – COMSIG

The aim of the project is to design and test a Composite Measure of Sustainable and Inclusive Growth (COMSIG).” It is proposed to undertake an incisive analysis of several of the flagship programs of the Government of India such as NREGA, JNNURM, National Rural Livelihood Mission and also to major projects of Corporate Houses (such as mines, steel plans, thermal power stations, transportation corridors and SEZs). In addition to critiquing, the project is also aimed at suggesting improvements in design of these programs.

Becoming Indian: Subaltern European Travellers

This research project will consider poor European travelers to 16th - and 17th -century Mughal India – servants, soldiers, master less men – who to lesser and greater extents became Indian, whether by entering into service at the Mughal court or in its armies, by studying Sufism and Hinduism, or simply by eating khana (i.e.Indian food) and finding their bodies transformed in the process. Although these travelers’ experiences intersect with the historical trajectories that led to colonialism and European empire, they also suggest the outlines of alternate Indo-European histories that potentially unsettle modern conceptions of bodies, race, and foreignness. The project requires: 1. Familiarity with other instances of "Becoming Indian" in non-Mughal territories such as Tamil Nadu or Kerala. 2. An interest in ethnography and comparative anthropology. 3. An empathetic as well as critical intelligence -- the ability to read between the lines of travel narratives to understand the embodied experiences of early modern Europeans in India is crucial.

Building Solar Projects in India

The aim of the project is to develop a business model for building solar projects in India. The plan has to developed after an in depth analysis of current market size, policy structure, technology and economics.

CAF India

Develop a PR strategy for CAF: To align the Public Relations plan with CAF’s long-term strategies. To clearly define and communicate CAF’s objectives and results, Information passage to network, volunteers, staff and donors. To create or update a crisis/emergency communications plan, Become an information resource for the media, Create and Pitch story ideas about our causes to media.

Climate Resilience through risk reduction – BASIX

The Objective is to design a long term implementation project (Development of Project Document) to address/ mitigate the climate-change risk through Weather-Based Insurance and Micro-Insurance products for weather-risk prone regions in India.This entails: 1. Addressing all open issues such as systematic programme set up, implementation model, roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, project management including the financial management and fund mobilization /arrangements. 2. Defining geographical areas of intervention and finalization of the strategy for intervention. 3. Undertaking situational analysis of selected areas of interventions (climate and natural resources, people’s assets, loss and damage assessment parameters, key institutions). 4. Designing the role of key policy stakeholders- state and central government. 5. Analysis of the lessons learned, available options and effectiveness of climate/weather insurance within India and outside with similar community profile.

Council for Environment, Energy & Water

The project aims at mapping perceptions about and actions taken on climate change based on case studies, desktop research, Database compilation for specific sectors and survey of selected Indian companies. Identifying thought leaders based on round-tables with leaders from the business and finance communities as well as other catalysts, including opinion-shapers. Building coalition/network/climate action partnership and adapting from the U.S. experience of EDF, NRDC, Duke, Alcoa, Shell and IT companies and facilitating specific actions that firms start demanding themselves and focusing on large firms as well as medium & small scale enterprises.

Harley Davidson

The project involves understanding the brand, positioning and target segments through interaction with Harley-Davidson. It also demands fellows to recommend several brand extensions and/or partnering opportunities and to develop an execution plan with investment details and return on investment.

IFRE - Launch a University

IFRE wants to firm up a detailed project plan for building and launching the University in July, 2013. The ELM team will work to develop the detailed plan in collaboration with various teams (executive, design & branding, architectural, financing, legal etc.), which are involved in the project. They will focus on: 1. Legal, Market (segment, pricing, other players and their USPs, Best practices etc. looking at the future academic needs of the students, innovative courses and programmes offered by other leading universities and colleges etc.), governance structures and best practices in India and outside to create a ready reference document on these matters. 2. With executive teams to build insights in design and architecture, branding, project planning, financing, academic planning etc. to build insights into the development of the project plan. 3. With directors of the firm to understand their vision, aspiration for the university, their idea and suggestions for governance policies and administration and building leading to a comprehensive strategic note on the project.

Project ‘viSparsh’ - assist visually impaired persons

Project ‘viSparsh’ focuses on developing an innovative solution that would assist visually impaired persons to navigate in their daily lives. The user is equipped with viSparsh device in the form of a waist belt. The function of this belt is to detect the obstacles coming in the user’s path and following that issue signals in the form of vibrations to the user. Hence, this user friendly device aims to provide an ease of access to the user for navigation purposes. For detecting the obstacle, Microsoft Kinect is to be used as the sensing unit. Kinect is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console. A Single Board Computer thereafter is to be used as the Processing Unit to map the obstacles and finally vibration motors vibrates to warn the user about the obstacle.

Socio-economic development in Kurukshetra

As a part of of a 9 member core team at the Development Office of Member of Parliament(Lok Sabha), Naveen Jindal, the team has to work towards creating capacity building schemes to be implemented in over 1100 villages of district Kurukshetra (Haryana). The main three main projects include Sanitation, Sewing Centres and LEAD.

The fellows are expected to: 1. Develop an understanding of the global supply chain, and its impact on companies like SunBorne in India. 2. Engage with the SB procurement and finance teams to develop a sourcing strategy. 3. Develop insights into the building a local manufacturing and supply chain vs trans-national arrangements. 4. Develop a strategy and recommendation for different vertical integration opportunities for SB within its supply chain. 5. Understand the debt market for Solar in India and outside. Also understand how investors assess companies and their decision making cycle and subsequently develop a investor strategy for tapping into prospective debt/equity investors. 6. Develop a comprehensive market opportunity for solar in India.

The new Anti Trust Regime in India

Project should cover: 1. Detailed research and analysis of section 3 of the Competition Act including on cartels. It should include a study of some important cases under EU law and an analysis on how some of those concepts could be relevant under the Indian regime, if at all. 2. Detailed research and analysis of section 4 of the Competition Act (abuse of dominance) including some case studies to the extent available (example the recent DLF matter). 3. As part of the project we may also put to them some specific queries that arise under these sections (based on some assignments that we are working on) to enable them to understand live issues arising on account of the new law.

What's up Bharat - website strategy for bringing change in India

Essentially all three fellows would be associates at YBF (Yuva Bharat Federation) working on a common set of projects. For purposes of reporting and mentorship, each of the three would respond to a different Director as per their allocated tasks: 1. Business Strategy (to MD of YBF) 2. Content Strategy (to Director of Content) and 3. Programs Strategy (to Director Programs).

Yum! Restaurants

Based on guided and proactive consumer contact, a deep dive of existing consumer research and analytics – develop a framework to address the following: 1. Identify key strategic opportunities and issues that the client need to address among their user base – understand patterns and behaviours in heavy, medium and light users. 2. Understand factors for inertia among aware but non trier base and identify causes for lapsed behavior among users. 3. Develop breakthrough solutions, programs, products and processes to address identified priorities – work on scenario development and financial modeling of these initiatives. 4. Research best practice and know how gathering from parallel sectors, other businesses that could have relevance for client's brand. 5. Test, Implement in-store and learn on select initiatives to assess traction before wider rollout.

Benefits

You get a fully/ partly supported, world-class learning experience that will transform your outlook, offer opportunities and inculcate essential skills.
The programme has been designed with the collaborative effort of eminent academicians, leaders and practitioners from around the world and aims at creating a truly holistic learning experience. Set up in collaboration with Penn, YIF now has active partnership with Carleton College and Sciences Po, the top European university in the field of Social Science and Politics. The hands-on work - on live projects will create avenues for future professional growth for the Fellows.

Take advantage of YIF’s partnership with reputed global institutions, companies, mentors and donors.
It will be an invaluable opportunity to forge relationships for the future. For the Young India Fellow who aspires to a career that is off the beaten track, the Fellowship promises to help him/her build that career. No matter what they wish to do, Young India Fellowship promises to be an invaluable launch-pad.

Get lifetime access to a network of eminent mentors who are committed to your success.
The Fellowship is sponsored by a pool of philanthropists with strong academic and professional track records. The commitment of these sponsors is to guide the Young India Fellows in building meaningful careers of their choice. This allows the Young India Fellows access to one of the most effective networks of professionals, thinkers and leaders of our time. Needless to say, this is a privilege no other programme or institute can offer.

Learn from the best teachers in the world in the company of exceptional peers.
In collaboration with Penn, Carleton College and Sciences Po, YIF is delivered by an exciting and inspirational panel of teachers from India and outside who are known for creating an unparalleled learning experience in the classroom.

Term Structure

The programme is structured around 8 semesters of roughly 5 weeks each.

Each semester will have three Perspective Building Courses structured around different subject areas and one or two skill development courses. Each of these courses offer 20 hours of lecture time spread over 5 weeks – this implies 4 hours of lecture time for each course in any given week.

Every term will have workshops focused on soft-skills training (written and verbal communication, team-work, leadership). Each of these workshops will have 2 - 3 hour sessions every week.

The project work under the Experiential Learning Module will continue across all semesters and will be managed by students outside their regular classroom hours.

Cost and Scholarship

Young India Fellowship aims to nurture exceptional and inspired students to build extraordinary careers that have significant impact on the areas of their professional engagement.

YIF believes that such students can come from any corner of the country and can belong to any social or economic strata and hence there should be no barrier for them to avail of the programme. To make it possible for all deserving applicants to avail this opportunity, Young India Fellowship offers scholarships that cover, in full or in part:

Tuition expenses for lectures and workshops delivered by the very best teachers and experts from around the world

Board and lodging expenses

Cost of reading and case materials, library subscriptions and purchase of text books

The average cost of the programme per Fellow is about INR 6 lacs and each student is sponsored fully or partially by a sponsor. Please see the sponsor section of the website for details about the sponsors.

In case the Fellow, for any reason, leaves the Fellowship Programme before the completion of Term, then he/ she shall forthwith pay a sum of Rs. 200,000/- (Rupees Two lacs only) to IFRE towards the cost of the Fellowship.

Location

For the first three years YIF is being co-located at the Sri Aurobindo Center for Arts & Communication (SACAC) campus, Sri Aurobindo Society in New Delhi. The SACAC has state-of- the -art infrastructure and students will have an opportunity to be a part of its rich campus life while they go through the one year academic programme. The grounds are a green oasis in the middle of the capital and a perfect setting for intellectual growth. SACAC and YIF share a common desire to promote quality education with deeper values in India, and have come together to further that cause.

The Fellows will also be staying at a fully furnished residential facility. The facility is located at South Delhi (5 mins from the partner campus). Each room will be shared by two students and will be organized separately for boys and girls. All services (food, security, house-keeping) at the facility will be taken care of by a dedicated service companies

From the 4th year onwards the programme will be moved to the upcoming Ashoka University campus which is being constructed 50 kilometers away from New Delhi at Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Kundli, Sonepat and is expected to welcome its first batch of students in August 2014.

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